Carrying Mazu
The twenty-third of the third month is Mazu’s birthday, the most widespread divine birthday along the Chaoshan coast. Each village brings her out of the temple to go round its territory; on Mayu island in Shantou the palanquin goes round the island, and along the Raoping coast the tour ends with “standing tea” before the ancestral halls. Two things are eaten the same day: a lion-head goose killed, and fried noodles.
1. Three things in one day
The twenty-third of the third month is Mazu’s birthday, which people hold a holy day. Along the coast three things are done: incense offered, opera staged, the god carried. Women rise early to dress and comb their hair, take flower baskets, and bring incense, candles, sweets, cakes and fruit to “descend to the temple”; shops and firms feast relatives, friends and staff.
Carrying Mazu has one step more than an ordinary yinglaoye: the hour is first chosen by throwing the divination blocks. When the blocks fall right, three shots from the ground guns go off outside the Tianhou palace and gongs, drums and firecrackers start together; sixteen young men in yellow silk with red cloth at the waist lift the palanquin out. The horse-head gong clears the way, Thousand-li Eye and Downwind Ear guard it, one in green and one in red, then tall lanterns and coloured flags, the conch-shell team, the banner-bearers, and only then the palanquin, the village elders and the Chaozhou great gongs and drums. Wherever the palanquin goes, households set out incense tables with clear tea and fruit, burn incense and let off firecrackers.
At Jingzhou and Haishan in Raoping the tour is followed by carrying the god to the tea seats before each ancestral hall for “standing tea”, to receive the villagers’ worship. At the Tianhou palace on Mayu island in Shantou it is the palanquin round the island, the fishing boats dressed up new, an image of Mazu on each bow, guns fired for blessing.
2. Two things to eat
For “Mazu’s birthday” a lion-head goose is killed and fried noodles eaten; it is still the fixed habit in Chaoshan on the twenty-third of the third month. The noodles are fried with chives and bean sprouts; bean sprouts are called “bean birth” in Chaozhou speech, for birth and long life. By the third month the first crop of geese is nearly over and what follows is the second crop, grass-fed and coarser — so the geese now are the last fat ones of the year.
| Year | Lunar | Gregorian |
|---|---|---|
| 2027 | 23rd of the 3rd month | 29 April 2027, Thursday |
| 2028 | 23rd of the 3rd month | 17 April 2028, Monday |
| 2029 | 23rd of the 3rd month | 6 May 2029, Sunday |
| 2030 | 23rd of the 3rd month | 25 April 2030, Thursday |
| 2031 | 23rd of the 3rd month | 14 April 2031, Monday |
The Gregorian column is a calendar conversion, not a promise that the year will be kept so. Every village along the coast keeps it, with different files and routes; what time a given village sets out is a question for that village.
3. Who keeps it
Every village along the coast keeps it, with no single organiser. The Tianhou palace on Mayu island is one of the oldest Mazu temples in eastern Guangdong, keeping Qing stone carving and woodwork, and a plaque reading “the sea does not raise its waves” said to have been bestowed in the Qianlong reign; the island also has a Qing temple to the three mountain kings and a Putuo temple, three teachings on one island.
The lists: the Mazu cult entered UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2009 — the cult itself, not any one village’s session. No separate list entry was found for the village procession teams.
4. Where to stand
As past accounts describe it
The tightest press is at the “touching the image” stretch. By the old custom, a couple married for years without a child who pushed to the front and touched the image or the roof of the palanquin took it as a sign of a child that year, so the pressure at the palanquin is the greatest. On the way back people watch which palanquin runs fastest — the bearers break into a sprint before the temple, which is what the saying “you cannot catch the temple run even in clogs” describes.
An editorial note
Do not stand directly in front of the palanquin to photograph: the bearers cannot pull up in the sprint. Mayu island is reached by ferry, and on the birthday the crowd is heavy, so catching the last boat matters more than seeing the whole thing. These two are this site’s reminders, not the rules of the organisers or the police.
Getting there: Mayu island sits at the mouth of Shantou harbour; take a city bus to Mayu ferry pier and then the ferry across. For Jingzhou and Haishan in Raoping, go by Raoping station. On the birthday the pier queues, so leave a margin both ways.
5. Sources
| Source | Body | Date | What it establishes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mazu’s birthday | Hualong Chaoshan net | — | the order of the rite, choosing the hour by divination blocks, how the bearers are picked, the custom of touching the image, the race back to the temple |
| The busy “Mazu tour” | Chaoshan folklore net | — | the tour and “standing tea” at Jingzhou and Haishan in Raoping; the make-up of the file |
| Mazu temples in Chaoshan | Putian municipal CPPCC | — | the food of the day: the lion-head goose killed, the fried noodles and their origin |
This entry was added in November 2026; the page had previously stopped at the second month. Each row above establishes only what its own column states.
6. What comes next
The session before it in the same month is Guandai, the Dark Heaven Emperor’s birthday on the third of the third; before that come the Shuangzhong festival at Chaoyang on the tenth of the second and Zhanglin, escorting the fire god on the fourteenth of the second. For how Mazu relates to the coastal village compacts, see yinglaoye: form and village days.
Back to the Chaoshan procession calendar for all the sessions.
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Last revised: 4 November 2026